A/N: Hi... readers... *waves awkwardly*

Okay! DontkillmeforbeingsolazypleaseImbeggingyouIdidmybesttofinishthis! XD

So I'll be posting non-MiraGen one-shots for a while... I'm not sure how many though.XD

And I'm sorry for the OOC Takao in this part. I think I lost grasp of his character halfway. *bows* Also for the ending. I had no idea how to end this properly. XD

Um... yeah... enjoy... I guess? XD

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For you, Kazunari Takao was just a guy who has been your classmate since your elementary to middle school days and your schoolmate in high school. You're not actually close with him nor you were in bad terms with him; in fact, the two of you simply regarded each other as 'the-person-who's-always-been-the-same-school-as-me'. When encountering each other in Shuutoku's hallways, he'd greet you with a friendly smile and a nod and you'd do the same in response. That was all there was to it.

 Little did you know, things were to take a 180-degree turn.

It all started when you were walking home from the convenience store when your mom asked you to buy some stuff you're missing for dinner. It was already dark, the clear sky filled with stars with the bright silver full moon serving as their queen. You were admiring the night sky when you heard some energetic singing in a distance. At first, you thought it was just a drunk guy going home. But when you tried to listen a little bit more, the voice was undeniably familiar to your ears.

As you walked by the park on your way home, the singing grew louder. The night singer was somewhere inside the park. Out of curiosity, you went inside, following the voice with the help of your sharp ears. You soon arrived and witnessed the singer's little performance around one of the park's wooden benches. He finished his performance with one hand raised into the air, his foot on top of the bench, and one energetic long note. You were right. It was your elementary to high school school mate.

You immediately clapped. Not only was it hilarious, but it was also cute and amazing in its own way. You stopped when he looked at you, his eyes wide with surprise. His cheeks turned red in a matter of seconds. The guffaw you had been suppressing found its way out of your body, so you covered your mouth with your hand then bowed apologetically. You ran away from the park and to your house, still making an effort not to laugh. Incredibly adorable, you thought.

The next day, you were on your way to the canteen with your friends to buy food for your lunch when you spotted him walking with his supposed green-haired best friend who was currently holding a girly pink fan which pretty much didn't suit his stoic image. Takao was as easy-going as ever, and laughed at his friend's lucky item for the day (You were watching Oha-Asa in the morning just for the fun of it).

His eyes met yours. You smiled at him then made that oh-so-familiar nod the two of you had always been doing. This time, though, he only stared at you for a second then averted his eyes away from you and took his phone, his face slightly flushing. You gape at him in surprise and confusion. This wasn't the Takao you knew.

The scene from last evening played in your head. You grinned. It was humorous! Maybe that was what it was all about? You haven't told a soul about it so he didn't have anything to worry about.

Your phone played its programmed message alert tone, pulling you out of your trance. You took your phone.

"Eh~? Who's that? Your boyfriend?" asked Mizune, your friend, who was beside you, trying to take at peek at your phone. You giggled a little, stuck out your tongue, and hid it away from her prying eyes, stuffing the cellphone back to your pocket. Just to be safe. Your siblings sometimes send you really embarrassing stuff no one's supposed to see.

"Huh? ________ has a boyfriend?! Is the world ending?!" Your other friend, Yasuko, who was walking a little to the front gasped melodramatically. "Oh my gosh! Help!" she wailed in pseudo-panic, gaining attention from the neighboring people.

The three of you laughed at her poor but cute acting. At the corner of your eye, you saw a glimpse of Takao staring back at you, his cheeks in the same color as before. You should probably tell him something about last night's incident.

You only remembered to check your phone a few hours after lunch break --- the time when your homeroom teacher dismissed everyone. There, you found a text from an unknown number. Though your first instinct was that the sender got the number wrong, you still opened it to check it. It wouldn't hurt, anyway.

From: xxx-xxxx-xxxx
Subject: Last Night
Content: Hey. This is Takao. About last night. . . you didn't tell anyone else about it, right? Can we keep it as our little secret?

You grinned to yourself as you typed in your reply, telling him that he had nothing to worry about and that he could trust you with the secret. You tried to sound friendly and reassuring with your short and simple words, though he wasn't actually a stranger to you. You've known him for almost your whole life. You sent the message then walked home with your friends.

The reply came shortly after, but you only decided to check when you got home. He messaged you with a cheerful "Thanks!" and a smiling emoticon at the end. Finding it unecesarry to reply, you placed your phone away, unaware what change was to come.

The next day, you were once again in the ever-so-familiar scene of you and your friends walking towards the canteen to buy food for lunch along with many other students. As you walked a little behind your friends, you saw your former classmate walking with the former member of the Teiko prodigies. You were watching him talk to his friend when he turned to your direction and your gazes locked. You grinned at him and did something unusual - you waved your hand slightly. His eyes widened a little before he nodded then immediately turned his face away from your sight, not even the slightest hint of a smile. Maybe it was just your imagination, but his ears appeared to be somewhat red. You shrugged it off, he was probably just not feeling well.

But that wasn't the case.

The next few days, his reactions were similar. He'd only respond with a quick emotionless nod of acknowledgement and an immediate look-away. It shouldn't have bothered you that much since he was just a school mate you've known for years, but it did. You couldn't help but feel unsettled with his sudden change of treatment with you. You were so used to those cheerful greetings the two of you did almost everyday that him not doing what the two of you were used to left a sense of loss in your chest. It was like an invisible hand was tightly gripping on your heart, and you didn't like the feeling. As far as you could remember, you kept your promise. You didn't do anything to deserve his sudden cold treatment.

"Haaah. Senpai won't notice me," complained Yasuko one day as she buried her face in her arms, her depressed figure slumped upon sitting on her seat. Mizune and you looked at your always cheerful friend. The image of Takao regarding you coldly every single day you greeted him flashed on your mind. You'd say you could relate in a way.

"What did you do this time?" Mizune asked with an extremely taunting tone and an amused expression on her face. Yasuko was the epitome of weirdness and eccentricity, but it wasn't hard to love her. You turned to their direction, interested on which method she used for her beloved senpai to notice her this time.

"Nothing!" she looked up at the two of you, her pouting face filled with disappointment. "Okay, maybe I just walked really close to him and made sure I was in his range of sight, but that's it!" She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Whatever I do, he just won't notice me!"

Again, weird enough, that reminded you of how it was going with a certain basketball player. It was a little similar, but you shook it off your head, said nothing, and listened to your lively friends.

"So you really like Miyoshi-senpai that much, huh?" Mizune casually remarked with a sly smile.

Yasuko and you jerked your heads towards Mizune, eyes wide with shock. No matter how similar the situations were, you couldn't possibly like the guy who you knew for as long as you could remember... could you?

"Ehhh?!" Yasuko stood up and shrieked in that high-pitched voice of hers. Her face turning red, she looked away and went back to her seat. "W-What made you say that?" she asked softly, looking unbelievably flustered. Well, you could relate, but you knew you did a darn good job in hiding it.

Mizune crossed her arms and smirked at Yasuko. "It's obvious, isn't it? You wouldn't be bothered much by it if you don't like him." Yasuko was about to protest when Mizune raised her index finger as if to say that she wasn't done yet. "And you wouldn't be trying every single day if you don't. Now, that's not just a simple admiration because he helped you out and smiled at you a few times." She rested her chin on the palm of her right hand. "That's what I'd call 'like'. Don't try to deny it!" She winked.

Two days passed after that conversation, and it left you into so much thinking of what to make of your disappointed feelings and wanting him to smile at you like he did before.

On the third day, you decided to do something about them --- both the him-not-smiling-at-you-anymore incident and the you-couldn't-possibly-like-him conflict in your head. You couldn't take the suffocating sensation in your chest whenever he turned away from your friendly greeting. Hopefully, what you planned to do would get rid of it. You hated the feeling as you were quite sure that what you were to do would help in getting rid of it and help in confirming if what Mizune said was true. What you were anxious about is how he'd respond, but your optimistic thinking brought you to hope that the friendly and easy-going Takao would respond to you nicely.

The moment the afternoon bell rang to alert the end of classes, you bolted up from your seat, grabbed your things, and ran towards the school's basketball court where he should be in. Your friends countered you on your way to ask where were you going, and you told him to go ahead for you had something important to take care of. Not letting them have another word with you, you rushed past them and went to your destination.

Shuutoku's covered court was filled with the sound of the cheerful chatter of male voices. When you peeked through the slightly open doors, all of the basketball team's members were huddled around in a corner, animated grins on their faces. You couldn't catch a sight of your target but upon seeing his familiar forehead and hairstyle somewhere in the middle beside some neatly-combed green hair, your heart suddenly skipped a beat. You stepped back with the weird reaction your chest made, confused more than ever. After a few short seconds, you shook it off your head, determined to accomplish your objective and not to let any unexpected bump in the way to keep you from doing so.

You took a deep breath and walked towards the group of giddy guys. In the process, you overheard what they were talking about.

"So was it effective?" one of them asked.

"'Course it is! Girls dig cool guys!" said another.

"But were you able to pull it off?" inquired the other third year.

"Takao was as awkward as always," answered a familiar voice --- Midorima Shintarou's.

"Dammit, guys! Give me a break!" You stopped in your tracks upon hearing his frustrated voice. It only took you a moment to decode what they were talking about, thought you didn't want to be sure. The reasonable part of you was saying that it was what you thought, and another part was denying it. You didn't like it nonetheless.

What you didn't want to hear and to be confirmed was said by the senior with light brown hair, Miyoshi. "What the heck, Takao. Just man up and confess!"

You stood there in utter silence, not wanting to believe what everything was all about. He had someone else he liked. An image of him being all sweet and cheery with another girl in your mind caused some sort of painful clenching sensation in your chest and made you feel kind of light-headed as the world seemed to stop; you didn't want that to happen. You tried to shrug it off  your head because you have to cheer him on, but you couldn't bring yourself to do it. You couldn't imagine him to be with someone else.

Maybe you do like him, as Mizune theorized, and it was already too late.

You didn't even realize that tears were threatening to roll down you cheeks and that the basketball team finally took notice of your presence.

"_-_______-chan! W-Why are you crying?!" Takao was suddenly in front of you, his hands gripping on your arms and panic written all over his face. His silver-blue eyes were looking at you, full of worry.

You harshly wiped away your tears and looked away. All of a sudden, your resolve to face him with the course of action you planned really well faltered; you didn't feel like facing him after all. You were about to turn and run away from him when you heard the Shuutoku team scampering off. 

"We'll leave you two to talk!"

"Good luck, Takao!"

You turned to the direction of the door to only see it shut behind them. Muttering a soft curse, you backed away from him and his grasp. You couldn't face him anymore; you couldn't even make eye contact. You were worried that one look at his face would cause your tears of distress spill from your eyes while you were doing such a great job in keeping them locked inside you at the moment.

The raven-haired male let out a sigh. "So... what brought you here, _______-chan? Is there something wrong?" His voice was awkward, but he tried his best to make it sound friendly. "I'm sorry if you had to get stuck with me here..."

Since you were here already, you decided to go with the plan with major alterations. You looked down, not wanting to see his face, and spoke, "I wanted to ask you something."

"Eh?!" he reacted with shock, but your eyes remained fixed on the painted lines of the polished wooden floor of the basketball court. "A-Ah... What is it? Shoot! Ask away!" He then forced a chuckle.

You took a deep breath to calm your thumping heart then looked at him. His eyes widened with surprise at your action, cheeks flushing a little and lips forming a small smile. He nodded as if to tell you to say it.

"Did I do something wrong to you?" you asked softly, determined to get an answer. Instead of looking at him in the eyes, you stared at his forehead instead. 

"W-Wha---? Where did you get that idea, _______-chan?!" He asked loudly, shocked. "Ah... sorry, sorry..." he apologized for his sudden reaction then chuckled a little. "You didn't do anything! Promise!"

"Then why the sudden change of treatment? Ever since that day... that night..." you trailed off, noticing that his cheeks reddened a bit. "A-Anyway, what I'm saying is, you act like I did something wrong to you and I intend to straighten it out," you added, slowly but surely gaining composure every passing moment.

"Ah... So that's it, huh..." he muttered, scratching his head. "Don't worry about it! Really!" He wagged his hands dismissively, sporting a friendly smile. "It's just what all the seniors advised me to! I just had to act all cool because I looked really stupid and embarrassing in front of you a few times and I had to---" He suddenly stopped talking, eyes widening and cheeks reddening. "...crap..." he muttered, covering his mouth.

You stared at him, both surprised and confused. "Why do you---"

"Gaaah! I messed up!" He crouched down, covering his face with his hands. 

Your heart rate accelerated. Was he... trying to look cool... for you? You sat down in front of him, trying to get a better view of his face. The disappointment was slowly evaporating from your chest, being replaced by hopefulness that he actually might like you too. You giggled in amusement upon seeing his ears as red as strawberries. "What do you mean, Takao-kun?"

He looked up at you, his hands still covering his cheeks which seemed to be painted with dark pink paint underneath. He let out a sigh, looking away for a moment, then staring back at you. "Look, _______-chan, I really, really like you since middle school. I just realized it this month," he started. You felt yourself smile. "I've always thought the reason why you always greet me back was because I was with Midorima and then I..." You shook your head disapprovingly, as if to tell him that he was wrong, but said nothing to let him continue. "I... You... You saw me do something really stupid a few nights ago." He chuckled a little humorlessly. "I liked hearing your giggle. But, gosh, I've never been so embarrassed in my life." You laughed a little, remembering the memory. "So I asked for my senpais' tips and they told me to . . . act cool." He let out a sigh. "I'm sorry if it got you confused..." 

You smiled a little at him and shook your head, giggling. "It did get me really confused but... It's okay now that you explained it to me."

He nodded after releasing a relieved sigh. "So. . ."

You tilted your head, feigning innocence. You wanted him to do his confession properly, but you wanted so bad to pull him into a hug for being so adorable with that blushing face of his.

"I just confessed. I like you... Will you go out with me?" His face reddening, he kept glancing at you as he tried to stare at the floor laid in front of him. 

You couldn't resist him anymore. You cupped his cheeks, making him look at you with surprise, and pulled his face closer to yours. When your lips were mere milimeters apart and you could already feel his breath against your lips, you whispered, "Of course, you idiot." You then closed the gap between the two of you.

For a moment, he didn't move. He was caught off guard. Upon realizing what just happened, his arms found their way around your back as they pulled you closer to him, deepening the kiss. He soon responded to the movement of your lips, slowly smiling against it. You then wrapped your arms around his neck, running your fingers through his unbelievably silky hair. 

The doors suddenly opened, making you pull away from him but he didn't let you go from his hug. A surprised team came in. 

"...Well, that escalated quickly."

"Geez, guys, the court is not a place for couples!"

Takao laughed. "Guess we're a couple now?" he whispered cheerfully, his breath tickling and his lips lightly brushing your ear. You giggled with a nod.

"Well, it really isn't!" Takao announced as he stood and let you go, lacing his fingers through yours instead. "That's why we're out of here!" he then ran out of the basketball court with you trying your best to keep up with his pace. You only heard groans and protests from the other members upon leaving the court.

"Hey, Takao-kun," you called his attention as the two of you walked hand-in-hand through town on the way home.

"Yes?" he asked with a smile.

You let go of his hand, much to his disappointment. ". . . Go have a concert again this night at the park. I'll watch you and be your number one fan." With a teasing smirk, you jogged away from the madly blushing him.

"_-________-chan!" he whined, running after you.

You laughed.